The present invention deals with the problem of post-restoration dental pain.
It is well known in the field of dentistry that a relatively high degree of pain is encountered by the patient following the placement of dental restorations, which include the penetration of bacteria into dentinal tubules, the caries process with resultant demineralization of tooth matter, caries removal, and tooth preparation resulting from use of a dental drill, the insertion of amalgams, composites, composite restorations/sealants, as well as crown and bridge preparation, impressions, insertion and cementation. All of these types of dental restorations contribute to a lingering post-restoration pain that may remain with the patient for varying periods of time, and that take place even though the teeth of the patient were asymptomatic prior to the rendered dentistry. Post-restoration pain also exists when dissimilar metals, such as gold and silver, contact each other. These dissimilar filling metals can be in different areas in the patient's mouth or may be next to each other in the same arch, but in either case, contact of these dissimilar metals when one of them is newly placed in the patient's mouth results in the emission of electric current in the salty saliva. This condition is known as galvanic shock and is considered to be a type of post-restoration pain with which the instant invention is concerned.
The present invention concerns a treatment that substantially reduces or entirely eliminates the aforesaid post-restoration dental pain, the treatment comprising the application of an agent, the essential ingredient of which is potassium nitrate, to the restoration and the cemento-enamel junction of the teeth involved.
It is important to understand that post-restoration pain is entirely different from the type of pain caused by dentinal hypersensitivity. The pain of dentinal hypersensitivity is not elicited unless tactile, chemical, or thermal stimuli are applied to the tooth, and it (the pain) leaves immediately when the stimulus or irritant of touch, hot, cold, sweet, sour, acid, electrical, etc., is removed. Expressed differently, as soon as the cause of hypersensitivity pain is removed, the pain itself disappears. Hypersensitivity pain does not result from drilling of the teeth, or caries removal procedures, treatment of the teeth by acid etching, etc., but rather this type of pain involves teeth which are intact, and is associated with gingival recession, clenching or bruxing, periodontal disease, and other unknown causes. Although post-restoration pain can be exacerbated by stimuli such as hot or cold, chemical or tactile factors, etc., the post-restoration pain lingers on after the irritant or stimuli is removed. It should also be noted that post-restoration pain can lead to reactive pulpal degeneration, such as abscess, granulonia, cyst, or a combination thereof.
Thus, although applicant has heretofore discovered that potassium nitrate is highly effective for desensitizing hypersensitive teeth (U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,006); and is also highly effective for the treatment of canker sores (U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,750); for preserving dental pulp (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,343,608 and 4,407,675); and for the treatment of gingival and periodontal tissues (U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,373), it will readily be apparent that all of these other inventions of applicant involve problems entirely different from the problem of post-restoration pain.